For much of his reign as Chelsea manager, Graham Potter's team selection decisions have been out of his hands with injuries plaguing the west Londoners for much of the season. However, following the arrival of seven players in January and the planned returns of three of those injured stars, the Blues boss faces a lot of decisions over who comes into his starting XI for their Premier League clash against Fulham on Friday
Despite the boost of five new players being available, N'Golo Kante and Armando Broja remain as the obvious long-term absentees, while the clash against Fulham on Friday has seemingly come too soon for Denis Zakaria and Christian Pulisic who both picked up injuries in January.
Ben Chilwell, Reece James and Raheem Sterling meanwhile have all come back into consideration of Potter, but the same cannot be said at the moment for Wesley Fofana. “Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Raheem Sterling, and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] are back in the squad, not ready for 90 minutes but in the squad," Potter said in his pre-match press conference.
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"Wesley [Fofana] has been part training partly with the team and he will be stepping it up next week. We are still without Denis [Zakaria], [Christian] Pulisic, Mateo Kovacic, N'Golo Kante and Armando Broja.”
Enzo Fernandez could be thrown straight in from the start after the Blues broke the British transfer record to acquire his services from Benfica. A £106.7million agreement was reached between the two clubs at the eleventh hour and the 22-year-old could be in line for a starting debut, with Jorginho, who started against Liverpool, sold to Arsenal.
After making his debut against Liverpool nearly a fortnight ago with a bright substitute cameo, Mykhailo Mudryk could come in from the start, while Noni Madueke can dislodge Hakim Ziyech from his position on the right of the attack after his deadline day move to Paris Saint-Germain collapsed.
Joao Felix will serve the final match of his three-game suspension picked up in the reverse fixture against Fulham, which at least for this week leaves Potter with one less decision to make. Nonetheless, he still faces at least five key decisions with Fernandez, Madueke, James, Chilwell and Sterling all now available with that not being the case at Anfield two weeks ago.
One of those names has now potentially hinted at his involvement on Friday by posting a dedicated match graphic, which often means that the player will be playing, on Instagram. The Chelsea star in question is Sterling who has been absent for a month after picking up an injury in the first few minutes of the Premier League outing against Manchester City on January 5, 2023.
Despite this hint, Potter could veer away from throwing his previously injured players back in from the start, especially after what happened to James in his comeback appearance against Bournemouth on Boxing Day. Come 7pm it will be extremely interesting to see who Potter has named in his starting XI from the six players who will be hoping to either make their starting debut or return.
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